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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoAndrew Weber | US PRESSWIRECincinnati posted the best outlook among Ohio’s metropolitan areas: Nineteen percent of employers there said they will hire in the first quarter, and only 4 percent plan to cut jobs.

Employers in central Ohio aren’t quite as optimistic about hiring over the winter as they were
just a few months ago or last winter, according to the Manpower employment survey released this
morning.

The survey shows that 16 percent of employers plan to hire during the first quarter of 2014,
while 8 percent say they will shrink their staff, the report said.

Nearly all the remaining employers, 75 percent, said they will maintain staff levels, and 1
percent said they don’t know what their hiring situation will be.

The spread of 8 percentage points between employers hiring and firing is down from 10 percentage
points in the fall survey and 13 percentage points in the first quarter of 2013.

Manpower conducted the survey in October, around the time of the partial shutdown of the federal
government, and that could have influenced some results, said Sue Ellen Deiley, managing director
in central Ohio for Experis, a professional-services company that is part of Manpower.

She said her business has been stronger in November and December than it was in October, and the
outlook looks promising heading into 2014.

“People are being conservative when there is uncertainty in the air,” she said of the survey’s
results.

Deiley also warned against reading too much into the lower numbers for central Ohio for one
quarter when the region historically has scored well on the survey.

“We’ve been going up steadily for quite a while,” she said.

The outlook for the state is similar to that for central Ohio: Fifteen percent of employers said
they will add jobs in the coming quarter, while 7 percent said they will be reducing them, Manpower
said.

Of the state’s metropolitan areas, Cincinnati posted the best outlook: Nineteen percent of
employers said they will hire in the first quarter, and 4 percent plan to cut jobs.

In central Ohio, the sectors with the best outlook include retail, professional and business
services, finance, and leisure and hospitality. Deiley said hiring in information technology and
engineering have been strong.

Employers in construction, private education and health care are expected to reduce staffing in
the coming quarter, Manpower said.

Health care has been one of the strongest sectors in recent years, but Deiley said problems
associated with the rollout of the health-care exchanges might have dampened enthusiasm in that
area for the coming quarter. She said the mood could change again once employers become more
comfortable with the changes being made.

“Whenever there is a spotlight on something ... we tend to get kind of conservative,” she
said.